Job Search Mini Camp 2025 🔴 Job Interviewing | Session Three

Key Concepts:

• Connections: Connecting the dots for the employer, connecting with industries that will thrive, connecting your skills to the employer's goals.
• Storytelling: Telling stories, not reporting history; using the CAR technique (Context, Actions, Result); focusing on the transformative nature of your work.
• Andy's Five Core Principles: Goals, Problems, Solutions, Profile, Cost.
• Great Eight Elements: Making money, improving the market, attracting a customer, customer service, saving money, improving efficiency, increasing speed, reducing risk.
• Feelings and Deductions: Interviewers are getting a feeling and making deductions based on your story.
• Power Story: Your most representative story that illustrates the kind of work you would do in the future.
• Branch Circuits: Sub-stories related to your power story that address specific questions.
• CAR Technique: A storytelling framework: Context (capture attention, give heft, foreshadow), Actions (inventory of steps taken), Result (confirm result, crescendo with more results).

1. Theme: Connections and Storytelling

• The core theme revolves around making connections: connecting the dots for the employer, connecting with industries that will thrive, and connecting your skills to the employer's goals.
• The biggest mistake job seekers make is selling features instead of showing how they will transform the employer's life.
• The key is storytelling, not reporting history. Stories allow the employer to visualize how you will change their world.
• "People give people jobs" - a key andism that was missed in the previous day's session.

2. Andy's Five Core Principles

• These principles are always at play in a job search: Goals, Problems, Solutions, Profile, Cost.
• Before an interview, understand the unit's goals, not just the activities they want you to do.
• The more exact the problem you've fixed is to the problem they have, the better.
• You can change the levels of the profile and cost to show how you are a better fit.
• It's okay to apply for jobs that seem too senior or too junior, unless you are fully employed and love your current job.
• It is not your job to answer the interviewer's question directly, but to give them the information they need to make a great decision about hiring you.

3. Preparing for Interviews

• Don't start with a list of questions; instead, think about the employer's problems and how you can be the solution.
• Ask yourself: "What have I done that would be a great example of how exactly I could help them?"
• Job descriptions often list activities, not goals, so you need to extrapolate the goals.
• When looking at job descriptions, focus on getting the interviewers to "feel and deduce."
• Interviewers are getting a feeling (e.g., "She's organized") and making deductions (e.g., "She must have these skills").

4. Storytelling Technique: The CAR Method

• Every story starts with one of the Great Eight elements (making money, improving the market, etc.).
• Use the CAR (Context, Actions, Result) technique to tell your story.
• Context: Capture their attention by starting with the result or the possibility related to one of the Great Eight. Give heft by making you sound more important. Foreshadow to tell them what's coming. Segue to let them know why you were chosen and keyword stuff your story.
• Actions: Explain the steps you took, not the tasks you did. This gives the listener a map and shows that you have a methodology.
  • The methodology should include: Diagnostic/Research, Solution Creation, Presentation of Solution, Implementation, Operation, Data Gathering, Iteration.
  • Inventory what you did at each step, using specific language that paints a picture.
• Result: Confirm the result and crescendo with more results, ending on a high note.

5. Case Study: Hannah's Story

• Hannah, a learning specialist, pioneered a new hire training program for implementation and enrollment managers.
• The goal was to reduce time and cost for hiring new people, improve employee performance and happiness, and improve process efficiency.
• Before Hannah started, the department had just absorbed two additional teams from a different insurance company, going from 26 to 47 people.
• These 47 people were integrating customers that were paying $676 million for insurance benefits.
• Hannah was recruited to build the first-ever virtual training for that team.
• Hannah's research included: evaluating current processes, evaluating learning platforms, and looking at best practices in the industry.
• She designed a new training platform with eight modules, 5-10 lessons per module, process documents, simulations, and role-playing opportunities.
• She presented the business case to the VP of implementation and the directors of implementation and enrollment.
• The new training program decreased the learning curve from a year to two months, increased the value of the enrollment managers, and positioned the company for a 15% increase in sales the following year.

6. Power Stories and Branch Circuits

• Pick a power story that is your most representative story that illustrates the kind of work you would do in the future.
• Prepare your stories using the CAR technique.
• Create branch circuits (sub-stories) that address specific questions related to your power story.
• Align silly questions back into your power story branches.

7. Action Items

• Build out your power story.
• Focus on the value that you created.
• Remind yourself that the story starts with the Great Eight and a preview of the result.
• Tighten the story so that you are only including the highlights.

8. Job Search Coaching Program

• The program includes: Job Search Boot Camp, Resume Writing Workshop, Job Searching Challenge, Interview Intervention, Salary Negotiation, LinkedIn Workshop, Online Support, and Andy AI.
• There are three options: Interactive Service Plan, VIP Plan, and Mastermind.
• The Mastermind includes small group coaching sessions and more direct interaction with Andy.
• The program is designed to accelerate your job search, make you more organized, help you make better career decisions, sell yourself better, get paid more, and do it faster.

9. Andy AI

• Andy AI is a tool that has been built from Andy's brain.
• You can ask Andy AI anything related to job searching.
• To get good responses, you need to feed Andy AI enough data and tell it what you want it to do.

10. Conclusion

The key to successful interviewing is to make connections and tell stories that show how you will transform the employer's life. By understanding Andy's Five Core Principles, using the CAR technique, and preparing your power story and branch circuits, you can increase your chances of landing your dream job.